Munich set two new corona records this Friday: 4421 new infections within 24 hours, more than ever in one day in this city. And a seven-day incidence of 1122.4. It is thus above the 1000 mark and higher than ever before.
The incidence has grown extraordinarily quickly, just a week ago the Robert Koch Institute for Munich reported a value of 718, two weeks ago it was 305. The virus variant Omicron has finally taken over the helm.
Notwithstanding the rising number of cases, the regional hotspot regulation remains suspended for the time being, according to which a region with a seven-day incidence above 1000 must go into lockdown. This means that an increase in incidence above the threshold of 1000 has no legal consequences. The Bavarian state government recently even brought loosening into play, such as easier access in youth work. Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) also promised on Friday that more spectators should be allowed to attend cultural and sporting events in the future.
The reason for the calm is the situation in the hospitals. The intensive care units continue to record discharges of Covid patients. There are currently 61 patients in Munich’s Covid intensive care units, at the peak of the fourth wave at the beginning of December there were 146. So the omicron wave has not yet made it through to the intensive care units. However, all the faster on the normal wards of the clinics. As of today, Munich hospitals are treating 253 Covid patients in the normal wards – and the curve is climbing steeply. A week ago there were 160 patients.
“I hope that we can finally put this pandemic behind us in the new year”
“For two years, our teams have been trying to do justice to everything in a situation that knows no justice,” summarizes Axel Fischer, looking at the past corona waves. In the two Corona winters of 2020 and 2021, the Munich Clinic treated around 200 Covid intensive care patients as of January 1st. This emerges from a current report from the municipal clinic network. In the fourth wave even a little more, since the patients had to lie longer due to the severe delta courses and had to be cared for in a more complex manner.
There are currently around 20 intensive care patients in the Munich clinic – only two of them with the Omikron variant. With a view to the previously comparatively easier courses with the new variant, the situation could also relax a little for the hospitals. “I hope that we can finally put this pandemic behind us in the new year,” says Fischer.
Despite the cautious hope and the promised easing, exceeding the incidence threshold of 1000 marks a turning point in the course of the pandemic. Numbers give people clarity as to whether a condition should be perceived as high or low, whether a bar has been exceeded or fallen below, says Dieter Frey, Professor of Social Psychology at the LMU. With this “interpretation of reality” you often need orientation and anchor points – just like the 1000 value for the incidence.